EU Directive Overrides French Law

France's Supreme Court of Appeal has set aside the application of a French regulation restricting cosmetics imports in favor of a European Union directive. legal experts say the ruling is significant for all sectors of the economy, especially pharmaceuticals.

The director of a Dutch firm marketing cosmetics imported from the Netherlands was fined by a Versailles appeal court for having "opened and exploited" a cosmetics import company without having notified the administration or indicated the qualifications and standing of the person responsible for product control, and putting products on the market without having submitted a dossier containing details of their composition. the case went to a further appeal and the director claimed the French rule was more restrictive than the relevant EU directive of July 1976.

It was noted that the European Court of Justice had censured France in May 1993 for failing to respect the 1976 directive, which states that placing cosmetics on the market is subject to provision of adequate and sufficient information about the substances they contain, to permit rapid medical treatment if the user experiences problems. But while the Versailles court argued that the French rule was justified because it was concerned with protecting health and life, the Supreme Court of Appeal said this argument could only be accepted in the absence of an EU directive. The Supreme Court added that the 1976 directive involved exhaustive harmonization of the rules applicable to cosmetics.